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07-31-03 (6:25am) this is not good. maurice clarett is now barred from practice by the coaching staff while his situation is investigated. i got tons of links and little time so here they come. in maurice links i have one from the dayton daily news, one from the cleveland plain dealer, another one from the plain dealer, one from the akron beacon journal, and one from the canton repository. in non maurice news i have a piece on mike doss signing a contract and will allen ready to step up. this sucks man. 07-30-03 (6:10am) just one link before i hop in the shower this morning. the canton repository has a piece on the continuing saga of maurice clarett. nothing new here info wise but solid reporting and no buckeye hating in the article at all. good job by friend of the site todd porter again on this one. enjoy. 07-29-03 (6:10pm) just checking in after work to see what was going on in the buckeye nation while my nose was pressed firmly against the grindstone. only one buckeye link in the regular newspapers today so let me get that out of the way before i discuss the continuing maurice clarett saga. the canton repository has a quick piece on mike doss and his contract offer from the colts. if mike were smart he would fire his agent and then take their take it or leave it offer and not give up the commission to the agent who obviously isn't getting mike anything he couldn't get for himself without some solid (hourly not percentage based) legal advice. afterall, who needs an agent to get a non incentive laden contract with the money determined by slotting. now for the latest buckeye soap opera, "the days of maurice clarett's life". first though two links on this to get you started. here is some brief info from 610 radio and some more from nbc4 columbus. now for what i have heard about the situation. first off this is old news. this theft of maurice's stuff was reported to the police months ago. this is the exact matter that the NCAA was looking into concerning maurice clarett recently and apparently they are satisfied with the explanation so i honestly have very little concern here. so what if maurice had some nice stuff, like it is a crime to get ahead in life. as for where the stuff came from, i don't care unless it is from an agent or a booster of osu or it is interpreted as an extra benefit. since the stuff isn't from an agent or booster or interpreted as an extra benefit i could care less. maybe prescott's ex bought it for maurice as thanks for him showing her what a real man is like, who knows and honestly who cares. it very well could be that maurice clarett has rang up some credit card debt while on campus, again who knows. there was some rumor mongering going on about perhaps they were gifts from lebron james, but that is sounding to be nothing more than a rumor. the only thing here that has me worried in the slightest is the fact that the car that was broken into that maurice was driving was not his car. it's title is in the name of a dealership. how maurice is driving around a dealer car is a good question honestly but apparently it is one that the NCAA is satisfied with the answer. if the picky as hell NCAA isn't worried about this after investigating it why should the buckeye nation get worked up honestly. i know i won't. anyways, that is all for today's installment of "the days of maurice clarett's life". make sure to tune in next week for more action on the maurice front. rumor has it he is going to start banging pamela anderson next week and i am sure a pay per video will be released shortly after that. hopefully the NCAA doesn't think maurice cashing in on some of his other skills isn't related to his status as an athlete and he is allowed to profit from his film. tommy lee, kid rock and chachi are scheduled for a cameo on campus the next week and i imagine they are going to try and jump maurice for nailing their ex (pam anderson) somewhere on south campus only to have bobby carpenter come from out of nowhere to break it up. after that maurice goes international to personally whack saddam hussein with a vicious stiff arm to the moustache. sadly the army morticians were unable to get maurice's knuckle imprints off of saddams face so some iraqis aren't sure it was in fact saddam that maurice stiffarmed to death. unfortunately george bush is going to give maurice 25 million as a reward for killing saddam and the NCAA will be investigating maurice and the buckeyes again. enjoy the action while we wait for fall camp to open up. 07-28-03 (7:45pm) not a single link in the newspapers today to interrupt my update. i honestly have no agenda at all tonight so let me pour up an absolut vanilla vodka and coke (definitely worth trying the absolut vanilla) and see what i can come up with for an afterwork update. the ozone had the only relevant buckeye news today with their announcement of the practice schedule for fall ball. it is a good news - bad news announcement unfortunately. in the good news department some practice sessions are open to the public. in the bad news department, all of those open sessions are on weekdays. really poor decision by the athletic department to only open up practice on weekdays while most of us alums that support the program with our hard earned dollars will be busy getting our earn on. oh well. perhaps some of us can sneak out of work early on friday. hmmm. anyways here are the exact dates of the practice sessions. tue. august 5 entire team reports to camp wed. august 6 first day of practice (shorts, closed) thur. august 7 one session (shorts, closed) fri. august 8 one session (shells, closed) sat. august 9 one session (shells, closed) sun. august 10 one session (contact, closed) mon. august 11 two a days (aft. open) tue. august 12 one session (closed) wed. august 13 two a days (aft. open) thur. august 14 one session (closed) fri. august 15 two a days (aft. open) sat. august 16 one session (closed) sun. august 17 off day mon. august 18 two a days (aft. open) tue. august 19 one session (closed) wed. august 20 two a days (aft. open) thur. august 21 one session (closed) fri. august 22 two a days (aft. open) sat. august 23 one session (closed) after the 23rd the practice schedule gets a little fuzzy. the ozone didn't have any dates listed for practice after that. with only one week left to prepare for washington you gotta imagine all the practices that week will be closed to the public and they will be on their regular season practice schedule. i don't know if the vg will be able to attend any of the open practice sessions with the new job and all (still only been there four months). i know the crazy bearded guy (the cbg) has some fridays off in august with vacation and all so maybe he will be there to snag some pics for the site. who knows perhaps i can sneak out early some friday or come down with a case of buckeye fever. if anyone out there is looking at going to a practice here are some quick tips. the afternoon session typically starts at either 3 or 3:15pm. the players do usually leave the woody hayes facility and hit the practice field a little early to warm up and what not. maurice clarett in particular is out on the field early every practice i have ever been to with him on the roster. i would recommend getting to the woody at around 2:30pm or so for parking and whatnot. i usually just park at the woody but i don't know if that is legal or not. so far they haven't towed me yet, but there is always a first time for everything. the practice sessions are generally held on the outdoor field beside the woody on the side facing lane avenue. i usually park at the woody and walk around the back of the building and straight into the practice field. they have some small metal bleachers at the practice field for the fans. you definitely want to sit up top for the best view of the practice field. you can also sit in the tennis court bleachers if you want to stand in the top row and look over the fence. i found the best picture opportunities work like this. start out sitting in the main bleachers in the top row. there you will have the best view of the entire practice field and as a bonus you get some great shots of the players as they leave the woody and enter the practice field. they walk right by the bleachers so if you are early enough that will be your best opportunity for shots without the helmet on. i take most of my pictures from the main bleachers. towards the end of practice though the team typically goes to the tennis court side of the practice field to run some plays as a team in a controlled scrimmage type setting. that is when i would make my move to the tennis court side to get some good close ups and action shots. as for what you can and can't bring, i brought drinks (non-fermented drinks) and my camera without any hassle. you are not allowed to bring a camcorder. not sure if you can smoke or not honestly since me and the cbg don't smoke. it is outside but then again it is the university so i doubt it. i don't recall anyone there smoking. anyways, that is what i know about practice. if anyone out there gets any pictures and wants to lend them to the site, drop me a text only email and i will probably notice it a couple of weeks after the fact for sure. if you have the ability to post your own pics on the net (either own some webspace or have the ability to sign up for a free account or want to use sony imagestation like i do for my videos) i will definitely pass the link along for sure. the more buckeye info we can get out there for free the better. last comment on the freedom of information for tonight. remember that the summarization of so called 'premium' info is perfectly legal so feel free to drop off some knowledge on the big message boards whenever you feel like (as long as it isn't against the board rules like premium sites enforce big time). i would do it anonymously since the 'premium' site could theoretically cut off your subscription if you used the same handle. also i wouldn't cut and paste a 'premium' article ever since that is blatant theft, but like i said summarization is perfectly fine under the law. help your buckeye brothers out and spread the word my friends. anyways that is all i have for now. i will get up early again in the morning in search of links that most likely aren't there. if they aren't i am crashing for another half an hour but i will get online after work again. enjoy. 07-27-03 (11:50am) since i took off last week from the website i figured i would catch up on the events from the past week and comment a little bit. for starters, i have no comments on the non-issue academic scandal and probably won't until norma mcgill has a picture of her ugly insane ass circulating in the public or she is punished for releasing private eduacational and health data like she did. in buckeye news there was some action with the big ten media lunch going on. on the osu roster safety leandre boone and ryan cook weren't listed and it doesn't look like either will be on scholarship anymore for the bucks. boone has confirmed that he is transferring but hasn't decided where yet that i know of. as for ryan cook i haven't heard any word on him honestly so his absence from the roster could have been on oversight but i doubt it. who knows maybe he is homesick and decided to be the player named later in the john kerr transfer and switch over to the hoosiers. i doubt it because cook seems like a bright guy and you would need to basically have the mental strength of norma mcgill to want to play for indiana. anyways, it looks like without cook and boone the buckeyes have freed up two more scholarships for recruiting. speaking of recruiting, sian cotton (the big two way lineman recruit out of lebron high in akron) wasn't on that roster either. it seems that he is having some issues with qualifying for school. there has been rumors about his involvement with lebron being the issue but that can't be the case. lebron is a lifelong friend of cotton's and not a booster of ohio state. lebron can give sian cotton a few million dollars, cars, hookers, and whatnot and it would be fine with the NCAA. now if lebron's agent or sponsors were to have comped sian to travel with lebron that could be an issue here so it is possible that lebron could have a negative impact on the program. in further recruiting news we have a little good news and a little bad news for the buckeyes. starting with the positives, the buckeyes have another verbal in the form of defensive back brandon underwood. brandon will be joining his brother ej in the buckeye secondary next year. honestly this wasn't that big of a suprise after he got the offer. the offer was always the big question and it went down about two weeks ago or so. at that point i think all the buckeye fans kind of assumed he would be a buckeye and brandon did just that this past week. i honestly can't really comment much on brandon since i have never seen him play. anyways, welcome to the buckeye family brandon. in the negative news department, the buckeyes have lost out for st ignatius quarterback brian hoyer. while the buckeyes have never made a formal scholarship offer to brian he was believed by many of us fans to be the one guy most likely to join this class as far as quarterbacks go. i have seen virtually every snap that brian took on the varsity last year, his first year as starter, and the game to game improvement was there as was the potential to be a starter in the big ten. i was really hoping that he would continue to show improvement and the buckeyes would offer the scholarship at some point in the high school football season. who knows perhaps that will be the case and the buckeyes will try to get in late and snake hoyer away from the spartans like we did marcel frost from iowa but i tend to doubt it. i do think michigan state will eventually turn around the mess that bobby williams refused to clean up if they give coach smith enough time to do the job (4-5 years so he can have his players in his system). i can definitely see michigan state taking the path of purdue and becoming a solid program year after year and contending for the crown every 3 or 4 years. hopefully brian will get his chance to continue his development and be michigan state's drew brees every week of the year but one (against the buckeyes, duh). good luck up in michigan and please beat the hell out of michigan if you can. anyways that is all i have for now. i played in another texas holdem tournament yesterday and despite playing for eight hours straight we still have three people alive. i am currently the chip leader with about a four to one lead on second place and a ten to one lead on third. i have been really conservative and waiting for one of these jokers to knock the other one out but that just stalled out the game. after my last two tournament appearances i could really use first place today (last tournament i went bust in approximately 20 minutes). anyways, i need to snag some lunch and then ideally pocket aces. enjoy and good luck to me. 07-27-03 (11:15am) after a great week offline i am back again with some quick linkage. in linkage the canton repository has a random thoughts article of their own today with a little on the buckeyes and a little more on kenny peterson and mike doss among other things. you do have to register to read the article with a valid email but you can use fake info for the rest of the required info and you can always sign up for a disposable hotmail account if you have privacy concerns. probably worth it honestly since the repository typically provides some quality buckeye coverage and they never ever hate on the buckeyes like some newspapers out there. last link i have for now is from 1460 with an article on football players not being your average students. duh. anyways that is all i have to post for now, but i should be back with another catch up update in about 15 or 20 minutes that will catch up this site on the news i missed this past week. honestly it will be pure rerun i am sure but it is something i gotta do. enjoy what time is left of the weekend. 07-20-03 (11:50pm) the vg is back from columbus and in the friendly confines finally. me and the cbg spent the weekend with the irish patent attorney watching the big33 game. thanks to the good people at fox sports ohio we joined the game in progress so we could watch some meaningless post game wrap up of the tribe game. i didn't see the first two scores, but it sounds like ohio came out strong and just shredded the PA team. i have to admit, i am suprised the ohio team was as dominant as it was when i heard how the roster was selected. while i still disagree with selecting players from all the different geographic regions of the state like they do instead of inviting the most talented players, who am i to argue with results like that. excellent job by all the players and coaches for the ohio squad. i guess some of my dislike of this politically correct method of selecting the rosters goes all the way back to my first all star experience. my second year of little league baseball i pretty much sucked as a hitter. i was (and am still) double jointed and then some and when i swung the bat the head of the bat would always drop more than i wanted it seemed. while i wasn't a great or even a good hitter i was quite good defensively and on the mound due to being much taller than everyone else and having really long arms for my size. anyways, my team was quite good that year being league champs and all. after the season was over it was time for all stars and i was pumped to continue playing since i hadn't lost a game since a scrimmage before the season started. instead of selecting the best players in the town to represent, our league selected a set number from each team instead. while i was one of the best two or three pitchers in the league i wasn't one of the top overall players on my team due to my lack of offense. initially i was snubbed from the team and i wasn't too pleased about it. almost immediately after that though i was named an alternate and invited to practice with the team. i threw nearly half of batting practice during these sessions and i was just mowing down all the 'true all stars'. i guess i was motivated by the snub. i felt that there were several kids on that team that despite being much better hitters than me that they had no business in being there. it seemed like most of these kids that didn't have the talent were coaches' kids and they got there by being nominated by dad and through the political process. needless to say i had some issues with some of these (to quote my favorite creedence clearwater revival song) 'fortunate son(s)' and i made them pay every day in practice. while i had a really stong arm for my age at that time i also had somewhat of a reputation for getting seriously wild from time to time. being an immature little kid (as opposed to the immature adult i am proud to be today) i would use this to my advantage to intimidate hitters by throwing at them from time to time. the head coaches son in particular got the brunt of my frustration in batting practice. i threw at his son with everything i had probably every 7 to 10 pitches. i got his dad so worked up he actually came out to the mound during practice once and started yelling at me and accusing me of throwing at his boy (real class act by an adult to yell at a little kid by the way). i played it cool and reminded him that i was only 10 years old and i had a reputation for being wild. eventually one kid couldn't play for some reason (vacation or something) and i got my position that i deserved finally and ended up starting the all star game. while i understood the desire to represent the best few players off of each team i thought it was insane that obviously less talented players would be passed over in order to basically get all the little league coaches' kids on the all star team. ever since i have had issues with how some of these 'all star teams' are choosen. i was pissed when i coached little league and saw a bunch of coaches' kids make the team that didn't belong and i am pissed whenever i see the major league all star team with their rule of at least one player from each team being named an all star, as if any detroit tigers deserve the honor this year. from what i understand the big33 teams are selected by the state coaches association and they make their selections so that the best players from each region in the state are members of the team. while in theory this is nice and fair, it is time these kids learn that life isn't fair. just because you are the best player in your podunk town or county it doesn't mean that you are even remotely talented on the larger scale. i understand that some elite players aren't going to accept an ivitation to the game and you can't fault the coaches association for that, but this geographic region thing is their rule and it is a bullshit politically correct thing that needs to be done away with. it is a simple fact of life that there are some regions of the state that do not produce big33 type talent every year. is it really fair that a couple of kids from that region represent ohio while more talented and more deserving kids from more talented regions sit home? i hardly think so. enough of that rant though and on to some other crap i pass off as being worth reading. there were a bunch of links out there today but honestly they all sucked. the big33 coverage was weak at best and i am tired of the academic non-issue so i doubt i will be linking that ever again unless there is some actual news on that front. so instead of linking some stuff not worth the read i thought i would just type up some stuff of my own that isn't worth reading. i found the big33 game to be quite boring this year for the most part (other than giving me my annual summer buckeye football fix). i was amazed at how poor the PA team was up front on both sides of the ball. the big uglies from ohio definitely controlled the game saturday night. future buckeyes david patterson and reggie smith were particularly impressive on defense i thought. the only time i ever saw patterson play prior to this was in the ohio north south game last month and while he showed lots of potential, he was injured slightly with a hamstring issue and it was tough to get a good read on him. he seemed to be in much better health saturday and he was impressive. we are stacked on the defensive line but it is highly possible that david patterson dodge the redshirt and contribute to the team in some role. reggie smith was the only ohio recruit for the buckeyes this past season that i didn't get to see play football in person (other than marcel frost who i didn't notice in either the big33 game or the north south game). i finally got my first look at reggie saturday and i was impressed for sure. i don't see him being redshirted either and making a contribution to the team either in the two deep at linebacker or on special teams. the rest of the ohio talent i had seen before but i still enjoyed seeing them get after PA like they did. curt lukens continues to play like an animal and show off the athleticism and football instincts that we have all heard so much about. typically there are lots of super athletes out there that the recruiting 'experts' all drool over when they see their 40 times and what not, but they have had poor coaching or they just don't pick up much from their coaches and they aren't great football players yet. curt lukens is the complete opposite of that player. not only is lukens a great athlete, he has a very high football IQ and it should allow him to make a quicker impact than your average recruit. louis irizarry continued to look impressive saturday. i am not sure how much playing time he can earn with talents like ben hartsock and ryan hamby ahead of him on the depth chart and with that much experience under their belts. irizarry is a different type of tight end than buckeye fans are familiar with though and he could get some time in obvious passing downs if we don't have to max protect. then of course there is tony gonzalez. i love watching tony play. as a corner he is highly skilled and very effective. it looks like the buckeyes have plans on using his blazing speed on offense though initially. with our wealth of talent at receiver i am not sure how tony gonzalez fits into the mix on offense but he could definitely contribute on kick block and kick coverage teams. tony gonzalez is money kind of like mike doss was when it comes to getting though to the kicker. he could definitely contribute there. speaking of tony gonzalez and cleveland st ignatius i have some info on iggy star quarterback brian hoyer in the form of a link. according to this link it sounds like hoyer has it down to michigan state, south carolina, and maryland. it looks as if ohio state is looking out of state for a quarterback this year (i don't count joe bauserman as a recruit this year since he won't be here until 2005 if ever). personally i was really hoping the buckeyes would come through with an offer for hoyer and we would get to see him continue to develop as a quarterback (and perhaps a pitcher) for the next 4 or 5 years but that isn't looking like the case. i think michigan state will be on the upswing in the near term under coach smith and you have to like his offense if you are a quarterback. that would be an excellent fit for hoyer's type of talents. maryland and south carolina lack the football tradition of a big ten school like michigan state. while both are currently solid football schools you never know what happens if lou holtz retires or ralph friedgen moves on to another job (highly unlikely in my opinion) or has a heart attack and dies (more likely than moving on, but less likely than a few years ago with his weight loss and all). another factor here is the baseball programs. while i don't follow college baseball very closely at all, i imagine either maryland or south carolina would be better baseball programs due to the strength of their conference. i know miami and florida state are superpowers in baseball in my lifetime so you gotta think the acc is a good baseball conference. then with the serious advantages the south has in college baseball you gotta think the all south SEC is pretty strong here too. rough decision for sure. another interesting thing from that article is the statement by brian hoyer that he hopes to bring some of NE ohio's top talent along with him like delbert ferguson or trumaine smith. so far the buckeyes haven't came up with a scholarship offer for either ferguson or smith that i have heard but that doesn't mean they aren't top flight prospects either. i haven't seen smith play so i really can't comment much there at all. as for delbert ferguson i have seen him play and i was highly impressed. he is a true power back with enough speed to play the position in college. don't take my word for it though, check out some of the free film i have posted on the net of delbert and make up your own mind. most of us die hards have seen enough football that we know more about it than experts like duane long or bill kurelic (though with his inside connections he is quite legit when it comes to talking about the buckeyes and recruiting). i personally love watching delbert run the football and i hope he ends up being a buckeye eventually. speaking of delbert ferguson, i have heard another rumor about delbert. this one goes like this. delbert is now a soft verbal to south carolina and lou holtz. it sounds like delbert is going to be a gamecock if things don't work out for him with the buckeyes. it also sounds like he is going to be patient and see what happens with the buckeyes and he would become a buckeye if the scholarship offer were to come and if things didn't then he would be lou's wet dream of a monster tailback. whether this rumor is true i have no clue. i am no different than the guys that read this site. i have basically no connections to the program and any behind the scenes recruiting info i get is from readers of the site. i don't seek any contact with players or coaches for the most part. i figure they have billions of better things to do than keep the vg up to date, besides the readers do a good job of that daily for me. speaking of the readers, big thanks to everyone out there who sends me info in the email, it makes running this site much easier than you imagine. typically i answer all the site email pretty regularly but lately i have been backing off the site before the season starts. sort of a web site vacation i guess. last year i took off something like 2 months straight and i felt kind of bad about it after it was over. i never realized that so many people depended on this little hobby of mine for their buckeye fix. this year i have been slacking off this summer some but i have been trying to keep up appearances for the most part. the site email though has taken the brunt of my vacation. i don't think i have answered any site email all month of july but i hope to catch up on all that this next week or so. i imagine i will be slacking off on the site pretty good until fall camp opens up now. i need to juice up the batteries for the long season and sleeping in past 5:30am sounds like a great start to me. trust me though. while i may disappear for a few days at a time for the next couple of weeks, i will be back in full force when camp opens up. an addict can take a break but he can never get away from it and i am completely addicted to buckeye football. in other recruiting news i have heard some positive news on the recruiting of texas quarterback - athlete robert reid. reid is one of the more electric and athletic qb's in the nation this year and he now has us in his final three along with oklahoma state and georgia. i also heard that georgia hosted him for an unofficial visit recently and it wasn't good so it could come down to either the good osu (buckeyes) or the bad osu (the ok state u cowboys). you gotta think that oklahoma state has to be the favorite here based on their proximity to texas, but then again we are the national champs and that has to be attractive to a recruit. it sounds like robert reid is definitely one to keep an eye out for this year. anyways, it is getting late and i should try to crash and get some sleep before monday bitch slaps me out of bed. i plan on totally blowing off the monday morning update so i wouldn't bother checking back in with this site until i get home from work. enjoy the last 50 minutes of the weekend if you can. 07-19-03 (10:30am) just four quick links before i head to columbus for the day to enjoy the big33 game with the IPA and the CBG. in linkage the DDN has an AP article on the committee formed by osu to investigate the academic thing. sadly it isn't an itty bitty titty committee, oh well. if it were an itty bitty titty committee it would definitely have my full attention. this committee though is just a minor annoyance at best that will fade away from the national media. unfortunately we will hear about this from opposing fans on message boards probably forever. that same AP article is reprinted in just about every newspaper today so i am linking it just once in an effort to avoid reruns or site registration or what not. in further linkage the akron beacon journal put forth some effort and whipped up an original article on this same topic. in the hating department, we have more from the cleveland plain dealer today. they don't hate on the bucks much today but i don't like their article all the same. the PD says osu fans shouldn't be suprised with the history of college athletics and academics. they talk about patrick ewing being admitted into georgetown despite not being able to read. the very next paragraph then says 'that this problem with academics has surfaced with Maurice Clarett and Ohio State is no surprise' as if maurice can't read or something. i would be willing to bet that maurice can write better than this hack at the plain dealer let alone read better. i am so fed up with the plain dealer i think i need to do a performance art type of thing and start taking a dump in their newspaper vending machines whenever i see them. that newspaper is and is about as informative as a piece of crap. last link for today is from 1460 the fan and it is an original article on the committee. you know what though all these articles kind of suck today so read at your own hard up for buckeyee information risk. don't forget to enjoy the big33 game tonight at 7pm on foxsports. 07-18-03 (6:10am) not much in the form of linkage today. i do have two on a topic i would prefer to ignore but what the hell, it is still the dead period and i know the buckeye addicts out there need their fix this friday morning. the dayton daily news has a piece with comments from clarett's high school principal. last link for the early morning is from the canton repository and todd porter with comments on chris vance. anyways enjoy friday and don't forget about the big33 game saturday at 7pm on foxsports ohio. i need to get busy and get ready for work. more later ideally. 07-17-03 (6:30pm) very long day for the vg today on very little sleep this week thanks to the new ea sports NCAA college fooball game. oh well, i have enjoyed it so what the hell. i have a bunch of links today so here we go better late than never. the dayton daily news has a piece on ivan douglas having to sit out this year again with blood clots in the chest. douglas is going to seek a medical redshirt so he can play again in 2004. typically the NCAA is suprisingly lenient with these medical redshirts. no reason to punish a student athlete who overcomes serious medical problems. it isn't certain that he will get his medical redshirt but i imagine it is likely. true soph rob sims will most likely step in for douglas at tackle assuming that the coaching staff doesn't shuffle the line up instead. it is always possible that a guy like nick mangold could move to center, allowing alex stepanovich to move to guard, and allowing a thinner adriend clarke to move out to tackle. who knows. i imagine even coach tressel and jim bollman know for sure right now. in further linkage the DDN has a piece with john hollins' comments on the maurice clarett and fictional academic fraud situation. as for me, i am already tired of this non-topic and highly doubt i will comment on it or link articles about it again. we are only something like three weeks away from fall camp opening up and it is time to be previewing the coming fall camp and season and not be discussing one insane TA's delusions. in other linkage, i have similar comments from my man KP kenny peterson on the topic du jour as well as some brief comments from coach tressel too. final link on this damned topic is from 1460 the fan with more comments from more players. talk about some boring articles. damn. in actual football news, ohio is sending its politically correct team of 33 to battle the best 33 in PA in a crap matchup. i used to be so excited for the big33 but there are too many players on the ohio team, who while are great in their region, are simply not one of the best 33 players in ohio let alone the best 100 in ohio probably. no need to mention names and put down kids but the ohio roster has way too wide of talent gap between the elite players and some of the representatives from the much much much less talented regions. who cares if 20 or 25 of the players are from mostly region one division one (probably the hottest of hotbeds in ohio high school football for talent). at least then we have a fighting chance. i still give the good guys a good chance in this game but i got a bad feeling honestly. anyways if you want to catch the game tune into foxsports ohio at 7 (though i have also heard that it will be joined live in progress at 7:18pm; who knows). the game is usually quite entertaining despite the whacked out method of selecting the ohio roster that doesn't represent the true strength of ohio high school football like it should. anyways, that is all i have for now. i am either going to play cards (more no limit texas hold em) tonight (unlikely but still possible) or get into a new dynasty on the ea sports college football game. enjoy, i sure am going to. 07-16-03 (5:55am) just two links that i can find at this time of the morning. the dayton daily news and the akron beacon journal each have an article on former players throwing their support behind maurice. as for me, my snooze button hitting ass needs to get busy this morning. enjoy wednesday as it happens. 07-15-03 (9:40pm) virtually no update today. i was on a quest tonight after work to get the new EA Sports NCAA 2004 game. i went to walmart and had no luck. i went to a crappy toy store and no luck and a discouraging sign in the store advertising that it was available the 17th and i could reserve my copy today. finally i regrouped, got the cbg on my side and we hit paydirt at an electronics boutique. the game is incredible and i am enjoying it way too much to spend time on the old computer tonight. hopefully my lazy ass gets up early in the morning and puts up some links. if not i guess i was enjoying whipping michigan's ass a little too late tonight. enjoy, i sure am. 07-14-03 (10:10pm) just checking in for an evening update for a change. there are tons of links out there today about the press conference. honestly they all say the same crap and for the most part they aren't worth reading at all so why even bother linking them at this time of the day i figure. the one link worth reading on this make believe scandal is words straight from maurice clarett's mouth. i am so glad the journalistic bar has been lowered like this. lately i have been sitting on tons of rumors that i have heard from sources that were less than credible. thank god for the new york times. fortunately for buckeye fans most of these rumors involve buckeye haters. since i can't prove or disprove any of these stories i have changed the names of some of the parties to protect the potentially innocent. this should be fun. in the tradition of the new york times i do want to be fair so i am going to describe my sources before reporting these now apparently newsworthy items. i was in the cleveland area last year to watch a high school football game when i met this first source. i believe he was a crackhead named tyrone biggums but i could be wrong on the name slightly. if you are wandering the streets of cleveland someday and run into a tall crackhead with really crusty pasty white lips it is probably tyrone. now i have no reason to doubt mr biggums at all despite his crack addiction and other self evident issues but this is what he told me and apparently that makes it 'fit to print'. one day he was really jonesing for some crack, go figure being a crackhead and all. anyways he was taking a dump in the alley and pretending to be reading the newspaper to cover up his public defecation when he said he saw an ad in the classified section seeking an adult male for an adult entertainment job paying 'big money' for a tall, dark, and addicted male. being tall and crack thin tyrone figured this was the easiest way for him to come up with some cash for his big crack party that weekend. anyways tyrone showed up at the hotel for the job and to his suprise these were no regular perverts looking to party, it was internationally famous pulitzer worthy journalists bruce whooley and bill livingstonipresume. tyrone said they were having a big old viagra party and they couldn't do each other anymore since they were so old that they had concerns about their bowels becoming outies instead of remaining innies. since whooley and livingstonipresume are such well regarded authors (i hesitate to use the term reporters really due to the quality of their hating on the buckeyes) they had the cash to burn and tyrone couldn't turn down their type of money. they made tyrone an offer he couldn't refuse, $450,000 for an all night rental of 'any and all orifices'. normally tyrone doesn't swing that way he insisted, but 'damn man, 450G's buys a bunch of crack'. tyrone relented and let the two really really old men live out what he described as their 'lifelong fantasy' of 'treating a strapping tall young black man like a chicken on a rotisserie'. later that weekend tyrone claimed he purchased nearly $450,000 worth of crack and took out an ad in the paper advertising his party. he said it was a great party and all but he will never be able to shake the image of the two old geezers skewering him in each end and spinning him around like a 'chicken on a rotisserie'. the final insult for tyrone was when they gave him a pearl necklace and spelled out 'suckeyes' with it. being almost a big of fan of the buckeyes as he is crack tyrone was not a happy man and he had to literally 'get this off my chest'. i am glad i sat next to you at the game tyrone. thanks for the story. disclaimer time here. this is a story told to me by a source. obviously the vg was nowhere near the actual events as related to me by this source. using the new york times standard of fact checking and what not i felt this was more than enough to go to print. the vg himself makes no such claims as to the veracity of this story told to me by mr biggums and despite my best efforts to confirm or deny this story within my deadline i was unable to. this is merely an effort by the vg to get out all the 'news that's fit to print'. the second story was also told to me by a source while at a high school football game this past year. i was up in NE ohio (the hottest of hotbeds for football talent in ohio) when i met this source. i never got his name or background but that doesn't make him any less credible than a disgruntled fired teaching assistant that has a history of mental and other personal problems now does it. anyways this source claimed to have just moved to the area from ann arbor. he said his wife's lesbian lover's uncle's friend works in the michigan athletic department while moonlighting in a michigan prison as a guard. this sources wife's lesbian lover's uncle's friend has the inside scoop on the michigan athletic department more so than anyone else in the world probably with all his contacts in both the athletic department and the state prison. anyways, this source claimed that while 'reporter' janson lloyd was visiting what he claimed was a 'platonic friend' in prison that he ran into lloyd carr on his monthly recruiting visit - alumni group speaking engagement at the state pen. i guess they struck up quite a friendship based on their sheer hatred of the buckeyes and became 'quite close'. one night this source's wife's lesbian lover's uncle's friend was working late in the athletic department shredding documents when he overheard lloyd moaning out in ecstasy that '(janson) lloyd is now lloyd's (carr) bitch' with a brutal smack for the exclamation point. again disclaimer time. obviously the vg was nowhere near the actual events as related to me by this unknown anonymous source. as such i can make no claim for the veracity of said story. despite my best efforts to confirm or deny this story within my deadline i was unable to. i am simply doing my duty as a 'journalist' to attract eyeballs and report the story as i heard it while letting the public make up their own mind. anyways that are two of the many exclusive stories that the vg has heard from what are now reliable enough sources. i have plenty more stories i can go to the presses with if the buckeye hating continues. your choice 'guys'. in an unrelated note, i just took off my left shoe and put it on my right foot. you know what it didn't feel that good. i guess i will think twice before doing that again. now for a message from my sponsors. tonights update was brought to you by both comedic legend and ohio resident dave chappelle and the miracle of beer. without chappelle the vg would barely ever laugh and that is not a good thing. all praise to the master dave chappelle, i am your comedic bitch. as for beer, it is solely responsible for keeping the ugly race from extinction, for without beer the ugly would never be able to get a little something something. anyways, big thanks to beer and big thanks to dave chappelle for inspiring me to mediocrity. i don't know what i would do without either of you. enough of the vg's exclusive breaking news, crappy disclaimers, and commercials and onto some regular old linkage. sure i like to entertain from time to time but i strive to get as many links out to buckeye fans as i feel like. remember, linkage keeps us all regular. in linkage, bill kurelic has a free recruiting update on the o-zone. for those new to the recruiting scene, bill kurelic is the only actual insider i am aware of when it comes to osu recruiting despite the claims of others who refuse to list off their qualifications to be a recruiting expert other than calling themselves one. in further linkage, i have a quick update on PA line prospect kyle mitchum as well as a piece on west virginia standout brandon barrett. as if that wasn't enough linkage, i have a piece on fraudulent five gang leader chris webber pleading guilty to a crime. as for me, i am enjoying a smooth refreshing miller lite and watching the movie 'the waterboy' on usa (i am flipping to ken pryor's show 'american chopper' on the discovery channel too). enjoy the rest of the night. i know i will. 07-14-03 (damn early, so early in fact i am not even in bed yet depite needing to be up by 5:30am) i just got done doing an update on the ohio high school tracker for 2003. i probably added maybe another 10 schools or so and their schedule for the upcoming season. i have room for notes on the schools and prospects as the season progresses so this page should be looking pretty good by the time the high school playoffs foll around. one way outdated task caught up now i need to work over the recruiting database big time. after that i plan to post the how to guide for filming and posting high school football highlights on the net for free. if this project works out in the slightest bit all of us cheapskates that are too smart to pay for the so called premium info will have higher quality video of all the top ohio prospects available for a free download. i hope to involve a few other top independent websites in this project when we get a little closer to high school football season so we can see some other top prospects from around the nation for free too. plus with the buckeye alums being spread out all over the country i think we should be able to get film on some future buckeyes that are out of my driving range after work on friday night. i will still be hitting a high school game nearly every friday of the regular season and saturdays that don't conflict with the buckeyes of course so i should be able to carry quite a load for ohio high school football film but all the help is appreciated and i will help anyone out there with the hardware, software, and hosting issues if need be. if the recruit is a big enough player that all buckeye fans are drooling over i may even do all the work for you if you send me the tape. anyways, i need to throw a load of laundry in the dryer and crash out tonight so i can be a zombie all day long at work in the morning. enjoy monday more than i am going to. 07-13-03 (11:15am) the big news of the day is a bunch of academic crap being stirred up by a disgruntled, recently fired, ugly, mentally unstable former teaching assistant. this bitch went to the new york times it seems after being fired and is trying to get back at the school (that she probably believes was out to get her for the past few years). the new york times being the credible source that it is went to the presses with the story this morning and put the article on the web last night. the gist of the article is that maurice clarett walked out on a midterm and skipped a final and was allowed to make up for it by taking an oral exam, not that type of oral exam either, this TA looks nothing like prescott burgess' old girlfriend. this whacko TA also alleged that some tutors were providing way too much help for the athletes. is it true? i have no clue. is it a big issue? honestly no it isn't a big issue. the vg himself is an alum of ohio state and is now a has a doctorate degree. i played no sports at osu that weren't intramural yet i received some of this same treatment. i took a philosophy 101 class when i was a junior or a senior not because i had any interest in descartes or anthing like that. i took the class because i knew it was easy and would require little effort. since i only needed the bullshit credit hours for graduation and not a grade i took the class pass/fail. i showed up the first day of class and got the syllabus. i then next showed up several weeks later and took the first of two midterms. i never showed back up again until the second midterm so i have no clue how i did on the test. i took the second test and then planned on showing up for the final. long story a little longer i am really drunk and shooting some pool with friends and hotties when a tool from my philosphy class comes in to play some pool. he asks me how i did on the final today. at that point i say what final and he says they moved up the final and it was today not later in the week. i probably could have got the teacher to allow me to make up the final but i didn't really care either. i took what i thought was going to be a fail in a blow off pass fail class like a man. i even told my family about it before i got the grades sent home. needless to say i was pleasantly suprised when i got my grades that my first two midterm grades were high enough to still give me a passing grade with the curve. moral of the story, this kind of stuff happens all over and every quarter. it isn't an athlete only thing by any stretch of the imagination. as for the tutors doing too much work for the student athletes, i do have a comment here too. a friend of the cbg's was an outstanding high school student and lived in the honors dorm that the vg used to live in and the cbg lived in at the time. this friend of the cbg's (and the vg's) was a tutor for the university and he had some athletes learning from him as well as other students too. he was an english tutor if i recall. the only athlete i can remember him mentioning was ken-yon rambo but there were others that i can't recall. anyways i know this tutor did no such thing and actually enjoyed the party scene so much that he got a 0.0 one quarter while he was tutoring rambo. speaking of a friend of ours 0.0 grade point average one quarter, it is a good thing i didn't identify him and i am not a university employee because that would be against federal law and my ass would be in serious trouble like this insane in the membrane ugly ass TA should be. that is the real story here. not only is this bitch whacko and disgruntled but she is disclosing the academic and the health (reading disability) status of students. she deserves some serious punishment for these violations and not just a slap on the wrist either. if it were me punishing her and i didn't have to concern myself with the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment i would forcibly turn her into a transexual (as in attach a penis to her nasty body) and force her to hump the two ugliest women in television history, mimi from the drew carey show and kim the assistant from the anna nicole smith reality show. now that is some punishment isn't it guys. don't do the crime unless you can do kim and mimi. anyways enough of the rant for now. there is a press conference scheduled for 2pm and i plan on catching it on either ONN or nbc4 (the only two columbus stations i get on my cable package). there are tons of links out there today but many of them are just reruns of the new york times article so i won't be linking them here so readers of this site don't pull up the same article with different ads around it. i am going to link the NYT's article as printed on 1460 the fan though because it does have a picture of what i believe to be this nasty should be humping mimi and kim TA in it. the rest of these links have actual info in them not cut and pasted from the NYT so they should be fresh to you. go figure but the haters at the cleveland plain dealer are buying this story and here is their take. it isn't by chief hater and hack bruce hooley but it is by his tights wearing sidekick bill livingston. while speaking of bill livingston and bruce hooley there is no truth to the rumor that the super hero cartoon on saturday night live is based on these two haters that i am aware of though they do seem to fit the profile. the canton repository has an article on this topic with their take on it and as usual it is well written and neutral. this article is written by friend of the site todd porter and it is up to his usual standard of excellence. in further linkage the dayton daily news has reprinted off the initial response from osu. final link for now isn't about academics at all (and it isn't like there are many fan sites out there dedicated to academics in the first place). this piece is from the official osu site announcing the sale of the official osu media guide. i have downloaded this the past few years in pdf format and it is pretty sweet usually. nothing new for us die hard buckeye fans but still worth the free download and some printer toner and paper. anyways, that is all i have for now. i am going to snag me a shower and then some lunch (think philly cheesesteak with fresh cut fries swimming in vinegar and dusted with salt and a fresh squeezed lemonade). after that i will probably watch the press conference at 2pm that weapons of mass irritation holder karen holbrook is having on this NYT fiasco along with buckeye superhero andy geiger. if anything interesting happens here i will get back online and update again. otherwise i am looking at taking it easy today and celebrating my big win in the texas hold em tournament last night. enjoy. 07-12-03 (6:25pm) first update in a few days and i really don't have any good news to discuss. oh well. there were a couple of fresh links today that i can post so here they come. the first link is about buckeye legend jack tatum doing well in his recovery at osu hospitals. the second link for now if from the y-town vindy on coach tressel making another donation to youngstown state university. yet another class act by a class man. speaking of class, i have some news from the past few days about the recruiting class this year to pass along. first off hamilton ohio db and buckeye brother brandon underwood now has a scholarship offer. brandon has good size for a corner (reports vary but he sounds like a legit 6 foot from people who have stood next to him) and he has some great speed as evidenced by consistently ripping off 4.4 40's at camps all around the country. i know notre dame is making a big push for him and they are probably in his top two or three, but you gotta like the bucks chances here with his brother on the team. the only thing i see working against the buckeyes here is our incredible depth in the secondary already. perhaps brandon would like to cut his own path apart from his brother and try his hand at a little thinner depth chart. i honestly doubt it though and fully anticipate him becoming a buckeye officially this february. in further recruiting news, it seems that things are looking good for the buckeyes with two out of state line prospects (either O or D line prospects). PA's kyle mitchum is starting to look more and more like a buckeye it seems especially with penn state filling up on scholarships fastly. it looks like kyle wants to wait out the process some so buckeye fans will need to be patient but a player of kyle's ability is surely worth the wait. the other out of state line prospect is california's brandon nicolas. nicolas was a player for cleveland st ignatius as a freshman and was projected as a starter as a sophomore for iggy which is damn impressive for a soph at a school like that. nicolas has the defending national champion buckeyes listed among his favorites and things are looking good for us i have heard. if we can just get one of these guys i would be thrilled. in the uncommitted my ass department, i have no news on all-but-buckeye-verbals ted ginn jr, fred davis, and marcus freeman. freeman is the only one of these three that i have a slight concern about but slight may be overstating it. as rocket ismail spelled on espn's college game day this year you can take it to the "b-a-n-c-k" those three guys will be buckeyes when it is all said and done in february. in the what the hell is going on department, i have some pent up thoughts on delbert ferguson and his situation. first off let me take care of some negative rumors. delbert has more than enough speed to play major college football. i have tons of video of delbert ferguson available free for download in my video archive (check out the link in the top left hand corner). in a few of the clips you can see delbert go 40 yards in pads while having the head on a swivel and there is no way he is 4.7 speed like some idiots out there are claiming (despite probably having never seen him). this speed rumor has me so pissed off i am actually thinking about counting off the amount of frames of video it takes delbert to cover 40 yards. at 29.97 frames per second, i should be able to get a fairly accurate read on his speed by doing some basic math. the only faults i see with this are that delbert will have a running start which is in his favor, but he will also have full pads on, be carrying a football, and he is looking out for tacklers coming from different angles which work against him. i imagine that these odd ball factors nearly even out and i also imagine that i will be able to calculate delbert's speed being in the 4.5 to 4.55 range. as for delbert's supposed fumbling problem, i have some comments here too. i only had the honor of watching delbert run like a maniac twice last season for starters. the first game he didn't fumble once and showed solid hands coming out of the backfield. the second game he was involved in four fumbles which is a shitload but they weren't really all his fault. one was a bad qb exchange and probably darryl clark's fault more so than delbert's fault. one of the fumbles by delbert was pretty careless and clearly his fault. the other two were just great plays by a great defensive team / system / coaching at akron manchester. obviously being involved in four fumbles isn't a good thing but it isn't a career killer either. these same idiots that love piling on delbert's case for whatever reason have some new lies concocted to make the kid look bad. these new lies have to deal with delbert blowing off osu camp for no good reason and him having possible grade issues and attitude problems. as for blowing off osu camp and earning his offer this couldn't be any further from the truth from what i have heard. i heard that delbert was in summer school getting some classes out of the way so he could graduate early (and enroll in college early as well). that sure sounds nothing similar to grade problems or an attitude problem to me. coming from youngtown ursuline (a fine high school academically) i can't imagine there being any issues with grades either, especially when he is going to be graded on the curve at warren now (not that warren is a poor school with poor academics or anything but there are some serious underachievers there). so how does delbert fit into the mix? good question. it isn't like i am a coach or a certified recruiting expert (couldn't come up with the 12 dollar fee, find a number two pencil, and be totall non-athletic myself to qualify for the status of recruiting expert). i have no clue how delbert fits in with osu but i still think he will be a superstar tailback for the buckeyes in another few years. i see him being the big tailback in this class and the best tailback when it is all said and done (though i have never seen pittman or haw play football in person). anyways, that is all i have for now. i am playing in a no limit texas hold em tournament tonight and i need to get my game face on. more sunday for sure. good luck to me and the cbg and enjoy what is left of the weekend 07-09-03 (5:45pm) big news while the vg was getting his earn on today. the insiders network (whose insider status is suprisingly lacking in the osu department) reported that florida qb joe bauserman has accepted coach tressel's offer and decided to become a buckeye. the catch here is that he won't become a buckeye like the rest of the guys we are recruiting for next fall, he is going to wait until winter 2005 to enroll. bauserman is supposed to be a top flight baseball prospect as well who may take the big money and try his hand at professional baseball (which i would honestly recommend to any high school kid with those options; take the sure money, invest it in tax free muni's or something safe like that, give baseball at least a year or two and then decide if baseball or college football is your thing). my take on bauserman you ask, i don't have one. i haven't ever seen him play so i am not going to go guru on you and just make up crap and try to pass it off as news worth paying your hard earned money for (or in my case reading free but poorly formed sentences with awful attention to detail). i will be seeing bauserman play football in approximately a few minutes though. thanks to the great posters on the ozone (which i sadly don't get to interact with anymore with the new job and all) i found a link on bauserman with all kinds of info and a 5 minute highlight clip free for download. i am going to start downloading the clip as soon as i get this posted. if you want to check out the newest member of the buckeye family in action check out this link i was talking about. i think you will like it. i believe this is sophomore year footage of bauserman when he was living in virginia and not yet starting for tradional florida super power (and florida state pipeline) tallahassee lincoln. in other recruiting news, i heard someone repeat something that bill kurelic said about mike massey. being third or fourth hand info i can't exactly quote him word for word but basically he thought things were looking good for the bucks and mike massey. for a top shelf recruit massey has been quiet about the recruiting process. maybe he learned from his two brothers that all the interviews and scoops to greedy bastards pretending to be experts just doesn't really help the player in any way shape or form. who knows. i am glad to hear that kurelic is positive about massey. there is no better expert for buckeye recruiting information than old dollar bill. you want to talk about an insider, damn man, kurelic is about as inside as you can get without having a whistle and drawing a paycheck from the athletic department. in vg news, i am thinking about going out tonight to open mic night to watch the cbg and our other brother perform again. last wednesday at open mic night was a classic scene worth repeating on the site. it was pure entertainment. i can't do the story justice now so i will save that one for later this week or maybe the weekend. as a teaser though it involved some really aggressive bar skank that wouldn't leave alone our friend shawn the guitar man. eventually we removed the a little too old bar skank from our table and onto some other tool's cock. that dude owes us some pitchers tonight if he is there since she did seem genetically predisposed to pleasing a man with her mouth. other teasers from the story involve the cbg singing his bar favorite original 'i go down'. nothing gets the ladies more worked up than that song. i swear, the place is usually dead then the cbg gets on stage and generally acts like a complete idiot and everyone loves it. you can't help but want to get your drink on after his musical tribute to oral. anyways, like i said i can't do this story justice right now. i am worn out and i need to think seriously about getting ready to go out tonight. in non partying vg news, the site redesign was slight but effective it seems. i have received a few emails on the topic and they are nearly all positive. i know it takes some time to get used to the top osu links being moved around but i think they are better where they are now and i will stop drifting my mouse to the upper right hand corner to get to the ozone and the other quality buckeye sites eventually. speaking of email, i have been receiving the site email and i have been reading it but i haven't answered any email that i can think of this entire month of july. i will answer all email as usual but i am a little behind. speaking of little behind, i am still shedding some of the weight that i put on during our run for the all the nachos last year. i figured i needed to get back down to my playing weight (all right, my playing with myself weight) before the season started because i can definitely see the bucks making a strong push to repeat this year. sure it won't be the same chasing down the sugar bowl as opposed to the nachos bowl and the novelty hats with a big five pound sack of sugar just aren't going to be as cool as the scarlet and gray nacho hats but that really isn't the point. i know i am rambling here but the point is the buckeyes are going to be undefeated for quite a while longer. get used to it and prepare your body for the beating it is going to take this season by dropping a few pounds that you are inevitably going to put on as we get ready to spend new years week in new orleans this year. anyways, i need to get my shit together and think about my plans for this hump day. definitely no more later today and if i go out tonight i can't imagine any in the morning either. if i don't get an update going in the morning ideally i will have some more sweet stories to add to last weeks bar skank that wouldn't quit. enjoy. 07-09-03 (6:15am) just one link real quick like before i head into work this morning. the dayton daily news has a piece on donte whitner. short but sweet this morning. i hope everyone likes the slight page redesign i made last night. gotta go. 07-08-03 (8:30pm) just checking in with some random nonsense. i took a slight delay in posting film from the ohio north south game (and updating the site, and answering site email, and redesigning the webpage, and updating the recruiting database, and updating the high school tracker.....) but i finally posted some more film in the video archive. as usual you need to register for a free sony imagestation account to get into the video archive. registration is free but you must use a valid email address and activate the account. if you have privacy concerns (it is sony and they have yet to spam me once) you could always sign up for a new hotmail account and just use it to activate and then discard the free email account. also as usual the new film i post is at the end of the archive so go about 60 videos or so in and help yourself to some eye candy. some of the vids i am posting from this game aren't buckeye recruits but they are all great ohio high school football players and i am sure there is some interest in some of these guys from readers in their area. if you have never been to the video archive you can dispell this myth about delbert ferguson being slow for yourself by watching tons of film on him as well as other top shelf talent in the state of ohio. one warning here, all the ohio north south film that doesn't feature buckeyes will disappear in the near term to make room for fresh high school football film in something like another 5 weeks or so. after that i will also need to delete the film of the current osu recruits like donte whitner, dareus hiley, donte whitner, tony gonzalez, and all the other great prospects i saw and filmed this past season to make room for tons of footage of fred davis, marcus freeman, ted ginn jr, chad hoobler, and all the other talents i will be seeing this year. speaking of the high school film i shoot and post, i have had some people saying they can't download it for whatever reason. i know for a fact that it is there and it can be downloaded and saved to your hard drive. i highly recommend you check out the video faq about five links or so down from the top of the left hand column. if that doesn't interest you try disabling the pop up stopper and then when the window pops up saying that it can't stream the film (as if you or i tried to get it to stream in the first place) just right click on the blue 'download now' link and select 'save target as' and you should be able to figure it out from there. in vg news i have been eating much healthier lately and it is starting to show up on the scale. pounds are dropping like lloyd carr drops to his knees on recruiting visits to secure the oral commit, quickly. i am almost back down to my weight this time last year. that national championship run was tough on the belt and the liver for sure. still though i can't wait to put the weight back on this year as we make another run for the national championship. the more i think about it the more i want to go to the washington night game to open the season. i imagine tickets will be pricey best case scenario but i also imagine hineygate will be a classic all day long party. who am i to not drink some beers and see some fine titties at hineygate. too bad i can't post my hineygate pics on this site. oh well. so far the only buckeye game i am hitting for sure is the michigan game with the cbg and doctor doug up in ann arbor but i will need to hit the horseshoe at least once or twice. with my high school football travel demands on friday i probably won't be able to hit as many games as i would like in person but i will find a way to see a few games for sure. anyways that is all i have for now. i hope to get back online in the morning and have some more links but i doubt there will be any worth the read. enjoy. 07-08-03 (6:05am) i hope everyone enjoyed the seventh of july (7-7-03) by celebrating with a seagrams seven and seven. i know me and the cbg did before we went out to see terminator 3 last night. i won't ruin the movie for anyone but it was pretty good. in a shocker i have links this morning. this first one just pisses me off too. the dayton daily news has an article with too much information about chris gamble and craig krenzel's summer jobs. how a superfan like doug harris could potentially threaten the eligibility of two superstars like that by describing the job the way he did is beyond me. if the DDN has any sense they should burn every copy of today's paper, remove that article from the online version of the DDN, and just basically shut the hell up. news is news but this isn't helping the program at all. if by chance the DDN does wake up and smell the coffee i would hope that someone would hack my page while i am busy getting my earn on and delete today's update (and only today's update) and help kill this story too. in further linkage the DDN also has a piece on new buckeye recruit steve rehrig. final link for the day is from the akron beacon journal on the buckeyes not living in the past. as for me, i am running late again this morning and i need to get busy. enjoy tuesday as it drags on and on and on. 07-06-03 (2:20pm) just checking in for the first time in several days. i actually do have one link to pass along fresh today. the cleveland plain dealer has a piece with some random thoughts on the goings on in cleveland. about 2/3 of the way down the page there is a tidbit on maurice clarett's summer workouts. sorry i can't update a little more today. my uncle is selling off a classic harley and he needs some good digital stills of his bike so i am headed over there with the equipment. fortunately for the vg i have never been to my uncle's house when there has been less than 10 cases of budweiser on stock so this job should pay well if nothing else. enjoy. 07-02-03 (5:20pm) man i am tired today. work went less than well but it is over and i am home. i haven't had a sip of alcohol in days but i am thinking about hitting an open mic nite with my brothers tonight so that may change soon. in buckeye news we got a new commit in jon skinner (no relation to principal skinner) our of PA. i gotta admit that i have never heard of him but i have faith in tressel and staff. it sounds like skinner was a top 10 or so prospect in PA as a junior but then ripped up the ACL and still played. bonus on skinner is the 4.0 GPA. could be a sleeper prospect and could open the doors to more PA prospects. i wish he was western PA because i believe it will be easier for us to recruit there in the future, but an eastern PA guy like skinner sounds great to me. here is a PA paper with an article on skinner and his verbal. i am going to start uploading the new recruiting videos to the archive here momentarily while i take a nap to juice up for going out tonight. i haven't decided what vids to post yet but i am going to post three and all three will feature buckeyes. check them out, they should be uploaded and processed by imagestation by 7pm at the latest i imagine. enjoy. 07-01-03 (6:45pm) no real news today (and remember no news is good news this time of year i always say). oh well. being the dead period and in an effort to bring buckeye action to buckeyes across the nation, i have posted three more video clips in the recruiting video archive. today i posted two ernie wheelright catches, one each from brady quinn and ben mauk. i know none of those three guys are going to be buckeyes (unless wheelright does the larry fitzgerald and needs a year of prep school and reopens the process...) but they are all great ohio high school talents and this may be several out of staters only chance to see them play ball. actually one of the wheelright clips has a buckeye in it now that i think about it. wheelright delivers a decent stiffarm to curt lukens. the third and final video i posted tonight is of kirk barton getting way in front on a screen pass. you really can't see him very well the first time you watch it but it is him and it is much easier to see the second and third viewing. in an effort to make kirk barton a little more visible let me describe the play a little here. kirk is playing right tackle and gets way out in front of the screen pass and down field. he (along with number 72) team up on a guy. barton ends up on the ground at the end of the play. honestly this isn't some of my best film this barton clip, but i never focus on a lineman when i film a game (unless he is the only player i was at a game to see) so i guess i was lucky to get anything on him. i will be posting film every day this week after work so keep checking back. so far i have posted five short clips from the north south game and i have 15 more to go before i fully milk that titty dry. as usual the newest clips are the last ones in the archive and also as usual you have to register for a free sony imagestation membership to get into the film archive. anyways that's all folks. more in the morning if i get to sleep at a reasonable hour finally. 07-01-03 (12:25am) just a couple of quick paragraphs before i crash. i finished capping off the ohio north south film i shot finally. i got a whopping 20 videos that i can use for the site. not one of my most productive games honestly. oh well. worse yet, several of the clips include no buckeyes. still though it is some great ohio high school talent in action and i want to share all 20 clips online so fans of guys like ernie wheelright (minnesota), brady quinn (notre dame), chinendum nduwke (notre dame), and ben mauk (wake forest) can see their potential future stars in action too. plus i imagine there are lots of high school fans of these guys that wouldn't mind downloading a clip or two to keep for themselves. i am currently uploading 2 of them tonight and they should be there and processed by imagestation and ready to download within the hour max. here is the link to the free vg recruiting video archive. the first clip i am downloading is a curt lukens touchdown catch. nothing fancy other than the six points. also of note in this first new clip is a pancake block by kirk barton. kirk played really well i noticed as i rewatched the film. i could definitely see him dodging the redshirt and possibly making the two deep this year. the second clip doesn't feature a buckeye but it is still a great play by two great players. notre dame commits brady quinn and chinendum nduwke (or as my friend the irish patent attorney says phonetically chenucktum knucktum) are the stars of this highlight. quinn escapes the pass rush and rips off a big gainer. in probably the best highlight of the game nduwke makes a vicious crackback block that got the crowd going big time. even if you aren't a fan of ND (or like 99% of buckeye fans hate ND with a passion) it is still worth watching. as always the latest update to the video archive is tacked onto the end so they are about 60 videos or so in. while you are there feel free to watch some of the other top prospects in ohio in action from last season that me and my brother filmed. some of the clips are pretty sweet, especially the very first clip in the archive of delbert ferguson. i also have some of the coaches film from cleveland st ignatius last year that i have been video capping and posting in their own little archive for a friend of the site. lots of good highlights there too if you are interested. that link is in the upper left hand corner of the page, fourth link down. the film quality isn't the best here since i was using a vcr tape but that is going to change when i get my hands on the entire st ignatius season on dvd in the near future. working with all digital highlights will be pretty sweet and quite easy for my current studio set up. another sony imagestation account that may be of interest to buckeye fans is the video capture work of vladimir gonzalez (linked near the bottom of the left hand column). he is a good friend of the site and likes to video capture buckeye highlights and post them on the net for free for all his buckeye friends to enjoy. he has been quite lazy as of late but that will change soon. i plan on lighting a fire under his ass this dead period. ideally this year i plan to expand the free high school film concept to other interested parties with the technology to film games (a camcorder, duh) and the time to check out some local prospects. several readers of the site have already expressed an interest in this and i am more than willing to do some serious consulting work to walk any newbies through the quite simple process as they get started. i can show virtually anyone how to post film on the net for free with some real basic equipment and using free servers and free / cheap software. this is jumping the gun a little bit though. much much more on this project a little closer to august for sure. final note for tonight is my standard disclaimer. to get into the video archive you must register with sony imagestation first. it is a free sign up and they have yet to spam me once if that helps any. if you still have privacy concerns you could always set up a new hotmail account and use it for this registration and once you are in you can just discard the hotmail account forever. your call there but honestly it is a completely unnecessary step. sony is a reputable company and they honestly never spam me ever. enjoy. |